Divergent opinions have continued to trail the impeachment of the Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Chukwuma Nwazunku.
Nwazunku was said to have been impeached by over two-third majority of the House members on grounds of incompetence, gross misconduct, embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds and on conduct likely to cause breach of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
However, the embattled Speaker insists that as far as he was concerned, he remains the Speaker of the Ebonyi House of Assembly and the purported impeachment does not hold water as it did not follow due process.
His claims were supported by the member representing Ikwo South State Constituency, Chike Ogiji, who said that the members didn’t meet the requirement of impeaching the Speaker as just 10 members sat to carry out the said impeachment.
Meanwhile, on their part, 15 out of 18 members who were signatories to the impeachment said that there was no going back on the decision. They maintained that the process that led to the Speaker’s impeachment was constitutional and democratic, as they followed the laid down rules as contained in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In a meeting at the Nna Street residence of the new Speaker, Helen Nwaobasi, which had in attendance the Majority Leader, Chief Whip, Minority Leader, and the Deputy Speaker of the House, they gave reasons for the impeachment and said that they met all necessary requirements for the impeachment procedure.
Therefore, they advised the former Speaker to vacate the Speaker’s Lodge and desist from parading himself as the Speaker.
Though the House of Assembly was on recess, it didn’t stop members from reconvening and conducting proceedings on Monday July 21 for the impeachment of the Speaker, as it was reported that out of 24 lawmakers in the House, 18 – which translate to over two-third majority – appended their names to the impeachment letter.
Shortly after the impeachment, Helen Nwaobasi from Abakaliki South Constituency was elected as the Speaker after a unanimous voice vote, and she was immediately sworn-in as the Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, making her the first female Speaker in the history of the state.
Having a notion that chaos may occur, the Ebonyi State Police Command has said that all measures were in place to ensure that there’s was no breakdown of law and order in the state, as their men were already stationed at the premises of the House of Assembly.
The Ebonyi State Police Public Relations Officer, Chris Anyanwu, also disclosed at the time of filing the report, that the Police had not been officially briefed of the impeachment.
All measures to get the executive arm of the Ebonyi State Government to speak on the matter proved abortive.
Meanwhile, Abakaliki the Ebonyi State capital looked calm as citizens were going about in their normal duties.
